Mount Si bear attack: Search for bear ends as trail is set to reopen
Less than 48 hours after a black bear scratched a hiker on Mount Si, one of the region’s most heavily trafficked trails is back online.
The Department of Natural Resources will reopen the Mount Si, Little Si and Mount Teneriffe trails at 8 a.m. Thursday with a new feature - bear aware signage” - according to a Washington Department of Fish & Wildlife news release.
The release also said that WDFW police officers finished a search for the bear but didn’t locate it, and that no further searches are planned.
The incident took place at 1 p.m. Tuesday about 2.7 miles up the trail. According to the release, a black bear charged at three hikers and swiped at one of them, a teenager. King County Search and Rescue said that the hikers were basketball players from Auburn’s Thomas Jefferson High School, and that the black bear was a mother with her cubs.
A second hiking group also reported being closely followed for “several miles” by a black bear, according to the release. Officers attempted to locate the animal and “concluded their search later that evening and did not locate either bear,” the release said, adding that “no additional search efforts will be made.
Black bears are native to Washington and the wildlife agency estimates the state’s population at 22,000. Attacks are rare, with roughly 20 documented in the state’s history and only one encounter that ended in a person’s death, in 1974. The last encounter that left a person injured came in 2022, when a bear attacked a man jogging north of Lake Whatcom.
The Mount Si trails, on a prominent craggy peak about a 30-mile drive outside Seattle, are some of the most popular in the Cascades.
Fish & Wildlife officials advise people to avoid black bears. If approached by one, you should stand up, wave your hands and talk in a low voice while backing away and avoiding direct eye contact. Officials also recommend carrying bear spray.
Material from The Seattle Times archives was included in this report.
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This story was originally published June 17, 2026 at 4:51 PM.